by Christian Miranda & Sophia Sadang
On Thursday, October 7, UST Nursing alumnus and The Outstanding Thomasian ALumni (TOTAL) awardee Dr. Carl Balita filed his certificate of candidacy for senate under Aksyon Demokratiko, where he plans to further the cause of healthcare workers, especially his kin-nurses. In an interview with The Nursing Journal, Dr. Balita, 1991 UST CoN alumnus, shares his vision for 2020, the first alumni featured on our segment entitled “TomasiNars On The Move.”
After finishing his bachelor’s degree, he continued his master’s degree in Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (PLM) and was granted a Doctor of Humanities Philosophy (Honoris Causa) degree from Lorma Colleges in 2007. He also held academic and administrative positions in several medical and educational institutions like PLM, Philippine General Hospital, Philippine Orthopedic Center, San Lazaro Hospital, and National Center for Mental Health. Currently, he is the CEO of the CEB group of companies and owner of an ISO certified review center named “Dr. Carl E. Balita Review Center” (CBRC).
What does it mean for the nursing community to have a voice in the Senate?
It means history. It means opportunity. It means legacy not for me but for nursing. This is history because this is going to be the first for the longest time in Philippine history. Never have we had a nurse in the Senate. It’s history because I'm not walking alone; I’m walking with the nurses. I’ll be carrying the message of nursing in this time and age where nurses are so appreciated because of our role, which never came before. This is the value of the pandemic that we need to celebrate it in time with the year of the nurses last year and the pandemic,”
What do you plan to bring to the Senate when you secure a seat in the Senate?
I want to bring the voice of 3 voices. Because by chance, I am a health professional, I am a nurse and midwife. That is why I am bringing Kalusugan. The other one is Kabuhayan because you know I have always been championing micro-small enterprises for over 20 years. My radio show and television show are over 20 years old. As a business leader of a local chamber and even the national organizations of business, I would like to bring this kabuhayan. I want also to bring, lastly, Karunungan, where I'm referring to learning frontliners. Actually, there are 3 crises that we’re facing right now--the health crisis, economic crisis, and learning crisis. Notice that all of the frontliners of these three crises happen to be me, within me. The health frontliner; I am a nurse, I am a midwife. The economic frontliners belong to the MSME sector which is 99% of the total businesses in the Philippines. It’s 99%. That’s 85% employment generated by that 99%. In the Philippines there’s only 1% large corporations-- all the rest are micro, small, and medium. In fact for the MSME the bigger chunk of that even is the micro-business, and how many businesses have closed? So many of them. They remain to be the frontliners of the economy. The survival entrepreneurs are the frontliners of the economy. Lastly, the learning frontliners. I’m referring to the teachers, the school heads, even the parents who have also become teachers now. And of course in the frontline of learning is now the students, kayo, the young people who are navigating this learning experience through the disrupted face-to-face education.
So, what will I bring? I will bring the 3 frontliners with me and I want to explain why. We are facing the new normal. We’re facing a new normal which could be difficult, which could be different. It’s volatile, it’s uncertain, it’s complex and it’s ambiguous but I want it to, I want the new normal to be a better normal. There will be a lot of legislative pivots that we have to do as everything pivots. You know everything, everyone gets disrupted. Learning is disrupted. Healthcare is disrupted. Even banking, commerce are disrupted. Along that line, there should be legislation to swing, to pivot, to be resilient enough to prepare us for the future which we never thought would come this way. And by the way, by chance, as a health professional, I am a nurse, a midwife, I have a master of arts in nursing. That’s on the health part, the kalusugan part. On the kabuhayan part, I am a multi-awarded entrepreneur and I am also a doctor of humanities. You know humanities is at the core of entrepreneurship and I am a doctor of humanities. Lastly, on the learning side, on the learning crisis, karunungan. The KKK it’s a 3-K framework. The Karunungan, I am a licensed professional teacher and I am also a doctor of education. I realized that my education and my training and my experience bring me to this time and age when nurses and health professionals are heroes, maybe there has to be someone who would carry the torch not for him to shine but for the three sectors to shine. When was the last time society said thank you to a health frontliner or thank you to a survival entrepreneur just wanting to earn so that he can sustain his employees? And lastly, to the teachers who are finding ways so that we can learn nevertheless. That’s what I want to bring to the Senate.
Do you have any messages for our Thomasian Nursing students, especially the ones who are currently registered to vote?
There is something I promise to carry as a Thomasian and as a total awardee. I wanna bring faith, hope, and love. I want to be a source of faith, a source of hope, a source of love. I want to stick with the “C”s of the college. Our character, our caring, our compassion. You know all of these, and of course the Christ, the most important C. Because Carl Balita, it’s all about C. I want to enjoin the young people. I made this decision not for myself, but for my children. Because I want a better country for my children. One of my children is a nursing student. I don’t want nursing to be just the nursing that it is and it was. I want nursing to be in a better place by the time she becomes a registered nurse 2 years, 3 years from now. It’s in their hands. I trust the young people with me because they are who I have in mind for this.
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